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DesignLove MastersBarbara Stauffacher Solomon: “Still Making Waves” at The Sea Ranch
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DesignLove Masters
Alice Wingwall: The vision of the blind photographer
Discoveries
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Films and Photos
Share some of our favorites
Books We Love
Great design books, old and new
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Our Launch!
On October 21, 2017, we recorded an historic live event:
Barbara Stauffacher Solomon: “Still Making Waves”, attended by hundreds—standing room only—at The Sea Ranch in Northern California. Bobbie was a groundbreaking designer in the late sixties when her work and her gender were shaking up the status quo.
Bobbie is the creator of The Sea Ranch ram’s head logo, SuperGraphics, and a stunning body of work from San Francisco to Stockholm.
Ram's Head Logo from The Sea Ranch
We interviewed the panelists AND recorded a unique conversation with Bobbie during her first visit to The Sea Ranch in decades, along with stunning footage of the original SuperGraphics.
The Masters Project first creates an audio-visual archive that preserves and shares these unique talents, history and perspectives. The archives are made widely available for digital access.
This archive—of great value in and of itself—then provides the foundation for a documentary program which includes additional interviews, examples and perspective.
Each Masters documentary will be distributed via Public Television & Radio, as well as to schools of design, libraries, professional organizations.
Seeking Support!
Please help complete this important and ground-breaking project by joining our team of supporters.
We have already completed the following recordings, in addition to the archive of the live October 21 event:
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The Sea Ranch: During our six days on location we recorded extensive exteriors of beautiful Sea Ranch and the Barbara Stauffacher Solomon graphics at The Sea Ranch Lodge.
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The Sea Ranch at dusk. Image Copyright by Ames Productions
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We are currently seeking funding for Phase One and Phase Two of the editing and distribution of the DesignLove Masters Barbara Stauffacher Solomon Project: Still Making Waves.
Phase One:
A Special Archival Program based on the October 21 event at Del Mar Center, The Sea Ranch, California
The archival recording of the live event has been edited and expanded to include full-screen graphics, film and photos discussed by the panel, audience participation and images from the extraordinary day captured by the DesignLove team.
Distribution
What: Archival Film Presentation
When: February 10, 2018 at 1:30 PM Where: The Del Mar Center Hall, The Sea Ranch Sponsors will be credited on the program.
The Special Archival Program will also be distributed to schools, libraries, universities, professional organizations and others as part of the DesignLove Masters effort to promote design literacy.
Panelists at the October 21, 2017 event
Phase Two: A Documentary Film
On Barbara Stauffacher Solomon The DesignLove team will weave together highlights from the event, in-depth panelist interviews, an intimate visit with Bobbie during her historic return to Moonraker Rec Center nearly 50 years after she—and it— helped put The Sea Ranch on the map, along with archival images and film, to produce “Still Making Waves”, a feature-length documentary film.
Distribution
The documentary will be screened in select venues including museums and theaters. It will also be submitted to film festivals, distributed nationally through Public Television, and then to additional distribution platforms such as Netflix. “Still Making Waves” will also be distributed to schools, libraries, universities, professional organizations and others as part of the DesignLove Masters Design Literacy Project.
Barbara Stauffacher Solomon addresses the media during her visit to the Moonraker Rec Center, October 2017
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Masters
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DesignLove was created to illuminate, educate, preserve, explore & celebrate design… to expand what we call Design Literacy. Legendary design for everyone, for every day, from public spaces to household objects. Design with a capital “D” and with a little “d”.
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Our centerpiece educational and archival effort is:
DesignLove Masters—an educational, not-for-profit project based in Northern California and under the fiscal sponsorship of The Charles Moore Foundation—will preserve, celebrate and share the perspectives, history, and processes of some of the most influential people and practitioners in design. The illustrious and the unexpected. The groundbreaking and the perfectionist. The revered and the irreverent.
The series features in-depth discussions, roundtables, revealing personal interviews and profiles in intimate & iconic settings. We put you–students, designers, practitioners & design lovers–in the room with the best at their craft. We explore their process and their stories.
What inspires them? How has the world reacted? What have they learned? What would they like to share? Where will they go next?
The Masters Project Includes:
Stories
The Project will produce engaging short- and long-form stories from these elements. We will archive and share these stories across multiple broadcast, digital, print and live platforms. DesignLove Masters stories will be distributed to National Public Television, to schools of design, to institutions and museums, to libraries, and will also be available on the DesignLove digital platform. Physical Preservation
The Project will provide much-needed critical and timely support to help restore, preserve, display and celebrate the existing works, journals and papers of our DesignLove Masters. Gatherings and Events
The Project will organize periodic gatherings and workshops to bring thought leaders and practitioners together, to stimulate discussion, demonstration and innovation. Publishing
The Project will feature reprints and special publications, including new and vintage works that may not find support in the current commercial publishing environment. Beautiful books are themselves important works of design. Digital Platform
The Project will feature a companion website, newsletter and podcasts and work with other platforms as well. These stories and interactions will offer rare insight into the work process and inspiration. They will serve as a bridge to the future and help preserve the priceless perspectives of some of design's most influential minds...
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Still Making Waves--A Tremendous Success!
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We traveled to The Sea Ranch in October, 2017 and filmed an extraordinary—standing room only —gathering of hundreds of people to celebrate the work of Supergraphics legend Barbara Stauffacher Solomon.
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Invitation to the October 21, 2017 "Still Making Waves" event at The Sea Ranch
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Creator of the Sea Ranch ram’s head logo and a stunning body of work from San Francisco to New York to Stockholm, Bobbie was a groundbreaking designer in the Sixties when her work and her gender were shaking up the status quo.
We filmed Bobbie and a remarkable panel in front of a standing-room-only audience on
October 21, 2017 as they celebrated her work and reviewed the continuing impact of Supergraphics. This historic event was filmed, along with interviews of the panel members and the stunning backdrop of The Sea Ranch and the Supergraphics that are integral to its identity.
The Masters Project first creates an audio-visual archive that preserves and shares these unique talents, history and perspectives. The archives are made widely available for digital access.
This archive—of great value in and of itself—then provides the foundation for a documentary program which includes additional interviews, examples and perspective.
Each Masters documentary will be distributed via Public Television & Radio, as well as to schools of design, libraries, professional organizations.
These stories and interactions offer rare personal insight into the work process and inspiration of these iconic designers. The results will serve as a bridge to the future and help preserve the priceless perspectives of some of our most fascinating and influential minds.
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The DesignLove Masters production
Still Making Waves features in-depth interviews with Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, our featured artist-designer, as well as:
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"ParaFog" by Alice Wingwall. Copyright by Alice Wingwall.
Alice Wingwall
“In March 2010, when my husband was working at Lund University in Sweden, I asked him to watch out for fog near Lund Cathedral.
One rainy morning he said, ‘There it is’. We ran downstairs at the Grand Hotel, grabbed one of their red umbrellas, and took off. With my tiny Leica digital camera, I was far under the umbrella, but I was able to get some of the fog, some of the cathedral, and a lot of the umbrella. Wow.” 
Alice Wingwall at the Lighthouse For The Blind in San Francisco show of her photography
Wearing her favorite color red, the last color she could “see”, photographer Alice Wingwall is standing in front of "Red Muse" at the opening of her one-woman exhibition in the ground floor gallery of the Headquarters of The Lighthouse for the Blind in San Francisco.
Alice Wingwall at the Lighthouse For The Blind in San Francisco show of her photography
Alice began her lauded career as a sculptor and educator, and moved to photography decades ago. When she began to lose her sight, she decided that would not end her pursuit of her art:
"Now almost everyone asks the same question, ‘how can you possibly, how can you?’ I realize they are making a statement, not asking a question. They smugly know that a blind person cannot take photographs and cross streets. My response is that any photograph begins as an idea in the brain."
Alice Wingwall at the Lighthouse For The Blind in San Francisco show of her photography
Alice Wingwall is a complex force of nature: strong in her imagery, in her memory, funny, gentle and aware. You can actually feel the will she has to produce these strong and engaging images. Any photographer would be fortunate to produce this work; that it is done without the benefit of sight is extraordinary—but that is not the most important thing about it.
Part of the Alice Wingwall exhibition at The Lighthouse For The Blind in San Francisco
It is her use of light, composition, mood, framing and exposure to tell the story that makes the work so good.
Here Alice tells the story of a photograph she took in the Metropolitan Museum in New York City:
"The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, is a magnificent example of complete access.
The last time we were there, I plopped down on the platform floor, and put my camera on the floor between my legs. Everyone looked at me, but nothing was said. I clicked away while Rumba [her guide dog] walked toward me many times, and I got great images of her pushing the frame, this time toward the camera. Wow! At first, I only pushed left and right, but now I knew we could push the frame almost any direction that I might imagine. Even toward my heart."
Twenty photographs—some in color, some in black & white, taken over the decades since Alice gradually became blind—are on display at The Lighthouse for the Blind in San Francisco until May 2018.
The Alice Wingwall exhibition at The Lighthouse For The Blind in San Francisco
Braille title and information
In addition to the Braille text, there is also a print version to guide you through the exhibition.
Alice shares her thinking and process: "I prefer to do all my shape changing, or compositional thinking, in camera.
Since I don’t, and in fact, can’t do Photoshop, I have to make these decisions in camera. That is how my brain works, now that I am blind. No other way, unless I would try to have someone else making these changes. No, no, no." She tells us where and why each image was created:
Alice's guide dog Rumba on Fano beach. Copyright Alice Wingwall
“With clouds coming, Rumba looked on the vast hard packed sand on the west side of the island of Fano, just off the west coast of Jutland, in Denmark. The wind was mighty and nearly blowing us over, but I was able to photograph her observing all the tracks in the sand, the water far off, and the clouds blowing in from the North Sea. A magnificent landscape experience for me and my ‘peach power guide dog’.”
In addition to being a member of the Blind Photographers Guild, Alice is also winner of numerous awards, center of focus in so many one-woman and group shows, and the subject of a film about her work and how she produces such remarkable photographs. The pictures below provide links.
A charming short film was also introduced concurrently with the Lighthouse For The Blind exhibit. In it, Alice talks about her process and her view of life as a blind person:
A short film on Alice Wingwall from The Lighthouse For The Blind
Additional information about the exhibition can be found here:
Alice's website can be reached here:
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Discoveries
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We Love This Pot!
The Riihitie Plant Pot
We recently fell in love with and ordered one of these beautiful plant pots.
Amazingly, three days later it was on our doorstep—all the way from Finland!
Designed by Alvar Aalto’s wife Aino
for use on the terrace of their Helsinki house on Riihitie Road and presented at the Paris World's Fair in 1937, these pots never went into full production until this year – 2017 – when they were reissued by Artek for Finland’s centenary as an independent democracy. |
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The undulating shapes of the Riihitie plant pots are reminiscent of Aalto’s architecture and also of the iconic glass vase which was introduced in the same year for the Savoy Restaurant in Helsinki.
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The Savoy Restaurant still functions today, with much of the original interior designed by the Aaltos still intact; locally-sourced food is featured on its delicious menu.
There are many reasons for DesignLovers to visit Helsinki; this destination should be added to the list.
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The Aaltos' and Artek's mission was and still is to “promote a modern culture of living by exhibitions and other educational means… a new kind of environment for everyday life.”
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Here at DesignLove, our connection to Aalto goes way back, to Maynard’s mother Jo and her shop Contemporary Backgrounds, in Detroit, Michigan in the early 1940s.
We are fortunate to own an early version of the Savoy vase from her shop, a stunning example of modern design DNA and craftsmanship.
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Our new Riihitie planter pot is handcrafted of ceramic; the high-gloss colors of these current production planters were inspired by the blue and white ceramic tiles of Aalto’s Muuratsalo Experimental House from 1953.
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Our pot in its new home
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We are so pleased to welcome this beautiful pot into our home, a new piece in this long continuum of design from the Aaltos and Artek.
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The planter pot can be found at Finnish Design Shop
Books We Love
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We love this book for two reasons:
It tells the story of Artek and the Aaltos and their vast contribution to the world of design & Its beautiful design by renowned graphics and book designer Irma Boom Artek and The Aaltos: Creating A Modern World
Nina Stritzler-Levine and Timo Riekko, Editors
Published 2016 
"[The book] contextualizes the contributions of Artek, and those of its founders, Alvar and his wife, Aino Marsio Aalto (1894–1949), providing evidence for their close professional partnership as well as critical interpretations of their major projects.
Artek is best known as the producer and distributor of Modernist bentwood furniture designed by Alvar Aalto (1898–1976). However, its mission was more complex and multifaceted, grounded in the notion that art and design could enhance everyday life." (from the Bard Graduate Center review) http://store.bgc.bard.edu/artek-and-the-aaltos-creating-a-modern-world/ This Beautiful Book...
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Architect Ben Thompson founded and curated the remarkable group of stores, which began in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Ben's architect wife Jane Thompson teamed up with journalist and architectural historian Alexandra Lange to write this marvelous book and record just how groundbreaking the store really was.
Design Research, also known as D/R, set a high bar for quality retail design, then and now.
Ben's architect wife Jane Thompson teamed up with journalist and architectural historian Alexandra Lange to write this marvelous book and record just how groundbreaking the store really was.
Design Research, also known as D/R, set a high bar for quality retail design, then and now.
Designing San Francisco
By Alison Isenberg
Published 2017
Published 2017
"A major new urban history of the design and development of postwar San Francisco.
...the untold story of the formative postwar decades when U.S. cities took their modern shape amid clashing visions of the future.
[The book focuses on] colorful, pioneering, and contentious San Francisco, where unexpectedly fierce battles were waged over iconic private and public projects like Ghirardelli Square, Golden Gateway, and the Transamerica Pyramid, [and] provides a new paradigm for understanding past and present struggles to define the urban future."
(From the Princeton University Press Review)
https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11109.html
...the untold story of the formative postwar decades when U.S. cities took their modern shape amid clashing visions of the future.
[The book focuses on] colorful, pioneering, and contentious San Francisco, where unexpectedly fierce battles were waged over iconic private and public projects like Ghirardelli Square, Golden Gateway, and the Transamerica Pyramid, [and] provides a new paradigm for understanding past and present struggles to define the urban future."
(From the Princeton University Press Review)
https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11109.html
Why?Why Not?
80 Years of Art & Design in Pix & Prose, Juxtaposed.
By Barbara Stauffacher Solomon
By Barbara Stauffacher Solomon
This tasty little tome is as much fun as it is erudite. Barbara’s autobiography is a perfect introduction and companion to the other books in this collection.
DesignLove Publications
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Looking Boxes and More
What is a Looking Box? Maynard creates these three-dimensional montages using his original photographs taken during his global travels and design adventures. Each Looking Box is a unique juxtaposition of photographs on different planes of the box. 
The selection of Looking Boxes in each of these books surprises and delights readers of all ages
Looking Boxes
Playful Ways of Seeing By Maynard Hale Lyndon
Published 2016 These four books feature a collection of looking boxes which Maynard has created over the last ten years.
The books are available individually or as a set. www.lookingboxes.com POSTERS 1960 - 2016
Maynard + Lu Lyndon Collection
Published 2017 
A collection of posters from the last fifty years.
"The majority of our collection (there are over 100) are quite remarkable in their imagery. Most of the poster images we've collected turn out to have been drawn or designed by now-famous artists..." (From the forward) What's that sound?
A particularly engaging book 
Rattled
volume one By Maynard Hale Lyndon
Published 2014 
Maynard started collecting rattles in 1967, when he opened his toy shop. He and Lu have continued collecting rattles to this day.
This little book illustrates just a fraction of their vast collection. The Lyndons' collection was exhibited at the Children's Museum in Boston, at the Design Research store in Beverly Hills, at UC/Davis and at the Placewares Gallery in Gualala, California. They may have the largest rattle collection in the world, but they can't be sure, as they haven't counted them all. |
Our Mission
Love design? We do — as verb and noun.
We think of design as both a process… and a solution.
We have created DesignLove to share ideas and things and places found and people met over our lifelong journey together.
To share our enjoyment of very special things, of people’s thoughtful and inventive problem-solving, of form and function, of the visual & the tactile… with images and interviews, words and experiences… of things we marvel at, things we love.
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We share with others through this DesignLove platform, which reflects and explores our passion and excitement about objects and places and people and experiences that do what they do beautifully.
We love design; we love the discovery of the people and their creations. What is their journey? What inspired them to make this?
We want to share what we have learned from the people we have met along the way. A work of art, a building, a perfect bowl or cup, a toy — beauty in everyday things.
There are stories and life in the objects we live with, large and small, fancy and plain, “important” and whimsical. When good design comes into your life, your story expands too.
Design celebrates life.
Come explore with us. And fall in love. 
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About Us
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The Lyndons
Maynard Hale Lyndon worked for several architects—including Frank Gehry—and was Director, Product Design for both Creative Playthings and Forms+Surfaces prior to meeting Lu in 1971 at Design Research, where she was a store manager. D/R was an early and groundbreaking modern design retail store that introduced Americans to such still-vital lines as Artek, Marimekko and Iittala.
Following their years as managers at Design Research—in Boston and California—Maynard and Lu went on to establish and run their own design firms, including their own retail design stores (7 locations) and gallery for 38 years. Placewares in California continues to operate with new owners. The Lyndons have found, designed, curated, lectured about and sold some of the finest and most celebrated mid-century modern and contemporary design.
ColorForm founded 1967: toy design and retail toy shop
Placemakers founded 1976: exhibit design & space planning
Placewares founded 1978: retail design stores and catalog
PLACES founded 1982: contemporary furniture store
LyndonDesign founded 1983: product design
They have designed scores of products including the much-heralded Wendel Collection of shelving, desks, entertainment centers—all using Maynard’s patented ‘wire wicket’ & ‘no-tools-assembly’. LyndonDesign products have been sold for decades in many fine stores including Crate&Barrel, Placewares, The Container Store, Williams-Sonoma’s Hold Everything and many others.
Authors of several design-related books and artworks, the Lyndons also lecture and consult—with a variety of clients—in the housewares and furniture industries.
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Beautiful functional design for all, and an appreciation for the people who craft it, is at the center of the Lyndons' philosophy and decades of work.
They have a passion for and deep knowledge of things well designed, well made and handsomely presented. Both have served—and will continue to serve—as jurors for shows such as: Accent on Design show in New York, The Discover Design program at the International Housewares Show in Chicago and the Housewares Design Awards in Las Vegas.
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The Ames
Rainie and Chris Ames, founders of Ames Productions, have 30 years of experience in television, communications and media. They have produced more than 20 shows for PBS, including “The Next 1000 Days”; “Oil Shockwave”; "The Man Energy and Environment" series of 15 prime-time lives; The “Clean Cities” series of one hour specials on sustainable communities; and the prime-time special “Treasures of the Library of Congress”
Reaching millions of viewers with compelling and critical topics, they have produced and directed Senators, Cabinet Secretaries, Pulitzer and Nobel Prize recipients, editors, publishers, academics, CEOs, and activists in live events, documentaries and talk format programs. Ames presents critical and complex issues in a journalistically sound and engaging manner. Ames also crafted the strategy for the development and successful launch of lifestyle, non-fiction programming in Europe and Latin America and consulted to the president of the Educational Testing Service regarding media strategy.
Ames programming has received the extremely rare and coveted “Recommended for Viewing” status by the National Education Association and was recognized by the Clinton White House, with an award presented by the President’s Council on Sustainable Development. Ames Productions served as the executive producer for the critically acclaimed film On The Edge, an examination of life with epilepsy. On The Edge was screened extensively in select theaters prior to its national public television distribution, including at the Gene Siskel Film Center of the Art Institute of Chicago. On The Edge is in the second year of licensing to national public television and will distribute to schools and libraries in 2018.
In 2016, the Ames created Thriving In Place, the one hour pilot for the series by the same name, coming to Public Television in December 2017. Thriving features author Ashton Applewhite, whose TED Talk on aging surpassed one million views in 60 days. Thriving In Place is also rolling out as a series of regional events and roundtables across the country.
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We founded DesignLove to focus on finding and sharing our love of design in the worlds of inventive people, places, environments, art and objects through our DesignLove series of films, books, products, interviews, lecture presentations, and exhibitions.
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